Better Late Than Never - Freewood (RIPD AU)
by savingprivatesimmons
Summary: Gavin had hated being a cop; He'd only signed up to please his dad. He'd aimed to get fired but that hadn't happened, instead he wound up KIA. However, the shocking part happened after his death; he was recruited by the RIPD, a team of undead police officers working to capture renegade souls. Amongst the turmoil, Gavin was just grateful that his partner was keen to look after him.


Gavin Free had been, admittedly, a pretty shitty cop. He had only been accepted into the Austin Police Department because he, unlike the other guy who signed up, had no medical history, while the other guy had a whole A4 page of medical treatments he needed to take every day. But overall, he had only signed up because it's what his father wanted him to do. Gavin had purposefully given a shitty interview with the hopes that they wouldn't want him, but, much to Gavin's dismay, they had.

And really, it was just bad luck that he'd been one of the very few police officers actually in work on the day where an armed robbery took place at a local bank, meaning everyone had to pile into the cars because otherwise they'd be short of people. If only Gavin had come down with the flu, or given himself a hangover, or broken his foot, or _cut off_ his foot, or _anything_ meaning he wouldn't have had to attend work.

Because if he hadn't turned up to work that day, he wouldn't have been brought along to prevent the success of the armed robbery. And if he hadn't been at that armed robbery, he wouldn't have been shot.

After the bullet tore through the side of his neck, he stumbled for a few seconds, clamping his hand down on the profusely bleeding wound uselessly, already knowing that he must have ruptured a main artery. But after falling to the floor, everything seemed to freeze, even another bullet that was mid-air stopped while Gavin got up and kept moving. It was weird, and he forgot most of what happened next because the next thing he knew, he was jolted sideways and he was sat in an uncomfortable chair in a pristine white room in front of a stranger.

"Good morning Officer Free," the moustached stranger opposite Gavin smiled lopsidedly, pulling a file from a drawer and flicking through it. "Take a few minutes to soak it all in, you're actually much calmer than other people who've been through the same thing."

"What?" Gavin was confused, still not fully comprehending what was happening there. He was sat in a weird room opposite a weird guy with a weird moustache and some weird George Michael song was playing in the background and absolutely _nothing_ was making sense. It was then that Gavin noticed the nameplate on the man's desk that read in block letters 'RAMSEY', probably his last name then.

"C'mon, I've read that you aren't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed but you can't be _that_ dumb." Ramsey was doing nothing to push away that insistent notion of doubt in Gavin's mind. Because he knew he had an idea of what had happened to him, he just _really_ didn't want to believe it.

Instead of talking, Gavin breathed in deeply, his chest constricting as he struggled to comprehend the facts. But after a few minutes of repeating it in his head, he managed to mutter it quietly, almost in hopes that this guy would tell him he was wrong as soon as he uttered the words, "I'm… I'm dead?"

"Give the boy a prize, yeah you're dead. You thought you'd _survive_ the bullet that tore through your neck?" He was oddly sarcastic and casual for a guy who was talking to a young police officer who had _literally just died from a bullet to the neck less than five minutes ago_.

"N-no, I just-" Gavin stuttered, words failing him once again as he struggled to process the man's odd behaviour for the situation.

"It's alright dude, you're not the first one to not believe me." He almost seemed strangely comforting, a soft expression washing over his tired face.

"Who actually are you?" Gavin asked after a few more moments of silence, kind of wanting to know more about Ramsey and about what the bloody hell was actually happening to him.

"The name's Geoff Ramsey. I'm the director of the Austin division of the Rest In Peace Department." He grinned proudly as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair a bit.

"So you want me to join your police force of dead people?" Gavin nearly breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been worried that he was on the highway to hell, not the stairway to heaven, so he was actually pretty thankful that there was a third option.

"Basically, yeah. All you gotta do to earn some more brownie points is join the R.I.P.D. then you're looked at in a far better light on judgement day." Geoff explained, and he did a very good job of selling the idea to Gavin.

"So it's like community service?" Gavin kind of liked this idea. If it meant he could bump up his name in the good books of the judges then he'd probably do anything. He hadn't been a terrible person in his life, he'd mostly done everything his father told him for fear of being cast out or punished. However, he hadn't really been a good Samaritan either.

"Kinda, yeah. But with more arresting and shooting renegade ghosts who escaped judgement than live people. Bonuses include getting to go back to your home city and working in the same area you did before you kicked the bucket." Geoff agreed, grabbing a belt and a gun from another drawer and placing it on the surface of his desk. "So, are you in or are you out?"

"Uh…" The whole reason Gavin was so glad about his death was the fact that he no longer had to be a police officer… But perhaps being an undead police officer would be more fun? And at least this time it would be his own choice to join the force instead of his pushy father's decision. In his life, everything had always been about what his father wanted rather than what _he_ wanted for himself, and Gavin certainly liked this job Geoff was offering.

"C'mon, I've got the _perfect_ partner for you. He's been bitching about working alone for at least two months." Geoff pleaded, certainly doing a lot to sway Gavin in his choice, his persuading tone and the advantages listed were already reeling him in. And he seemed pretty stoked to have found a _'perfect partner'_ for whoever had been working alone for those two months, so perhaps Gavin would give it a go.

"Sure, I'll do whatever it is dead police officers do." Gavin muttered, ridding himself of his bulletproof vest, doubting that it would be of much use now he had no pulse.

"Alright, brace yourself," was all the warning Geoff gave him before a searing pain burned the top left side of Gavin's chest.

"Brace myself for what? _Ouch_, what the _bloody hell_ was _that?!_" Gavin squealed, grabbing a fist of his button-down shirt and pulling on the collar to reveal what had caused the burning pain above his left pec. Sure enough, instead of a pin-on badge, black ink now resided in the form of the R.I.P.D. emblem as a tattoo on his tanned skin.

"Hey, I told you to brace yourself so don't go bitchin' about it to me." Geoff drawled when he saw that Gavin was about to open his mouth to complain. He stood up from his chair and picked up the belt, clipping it around his waist and not bothering to tuck the chair back under as he reached for a door handle behind the desk. "So, you coming or what?"

"I was always sceptical of life after death, but I honestly never thought for a _second_ that I'd be joining the undead police force." Gavin mumbled under his breath, although Geoff barked out a laugh as he led the way into a dark corridor that seemed to be so high that it had no ceiling, cells lined the walls and Geoff couldn't help but chuckle when Gavin stumbled backwards after setting eyes on the creatures behind the bars.

"They're some Deadoes, _they _are the bitches that _you_ are out to catch." Geoff informed, walking over down the corridor and to a lift. After the lift stopped at their floor, a huge room was revealed with what must have been almost a hundred desks, and many more hallways from the sides, with even more people walking around. "They escape judgement and wreak havoc on Earth but they appear human until their true forms as grossly deformed and mutated monsters are revealed."

"This," Geoff said, opening his arms in a wide gesture to the huge room, "is Austin's R.I.P.D. headquarters."

"This is the place you'll be stationed until you're sent out on a job." Geoff explained happily, striding over to another desk where two young police officers stood, one redhead with a frown on his face, and one darker haired man who sat cross-legged on top of the desk.

"Hey Geoff, who's the new recruit?" The boy on the desk asked, looking up from where he'd been polishing his gun - the same as the one Geoff had handed over to Gavin initially, the Brit noted.

"This is Gavin, I'm partnering him up with Ryan," Geoff informed, patting Gavin on the back and nudging him forwards.

"Sup dude, I'm Ray and this's Michael." Ray, the darker haired guy, said with a smile, extending his hand for Gavin to shake, which he did. Michael simply looked Gavin up and down, nodding curtly in what Gavin guessed to be approval. "We've been babysitting Ryan because he doesn't like working alone. Man, he's gonna be _pumped_ to find out he's got a partner again!"

"Are you seriously confused as to where Ryan is? He's fucking talking to Jack at the evidence lockers, like always." Michael informed, a less irritated tone to his voice than Gavin had anticipated, but it definitely sounded as though Gavin would have to work to get on his good side.

Gavin scurried after Geoff as he led the way across the huge room to where a long desk and a massive vault were kept, assumedly the evidence lockers. He grinned upon seeing the two men, one slightly taller man behind the counter who had an impressive auburn beard and glasses, and another man with dusty blonde hair and a handsome face who leaned casually against the desk.

"Ryan, meet Gavin. I've finally got you a partner." Geoff informed proudly, his lopsided smirk widening even further as he watched Ryan's eyes light up with excitement. Alright, so Gavin assumed the man with glasses behind the counter was Jack. And if the big sign near him was anything to go by, this was the place where strange and important artefacts and documents were kept.

"Awesome, hey Gavin!" Ryan had a smooth deep voice, and he extended a hand for Gavin to shake, which he did after a moment of taking in the sight of his partner in crime-fighting. Well, more like ghost-fighting, or Deado-fighting, or whatever Geoff had called those creepy bastards. "Jeez, Geoff. Took you long enough to find me one."

"Hey, you're a difficult motherfucker to find a partner for. You try doing my job for a day, I bet you'll be begging for your gun back in less than an hour." Geoff snapped, not even half-seriously as he laughed along with Jack. Meanwhile, Ryan scowled grumpily before crossing his arms defensively over his chest. "Anyway, there's a pretty easy case down in south Austin. Ryan'll show you the ropes from here, is that okay?"

"Yeah, sounds great." Gavin agreed, only just remembering that he hadn't spoken in quite a while, still in awe of the entire situation. Within an hour he had died, awoken in a weird office, met some weird people, been enlisted in the Rest In Peace Department, and in a few minutes he was about to head out on his first case.

Meanwhile, Ryan had taken a few steps away from the counter and was looking at Gavin expectantly. "You coming or what, rookie?"

"Of course." Gavin spluttered, skipping down the few steps and through the huge open office as he followed Ryan to the entrance of what _seriously_ looked like a bathroom. "Uhh… Ryan? I'm not going in there."

"Just get in and relax, it's basically a teleporter," he said, shutting the door behind them and adjusting the gunstrap of the belt he wore. The ground rumbled and shook gently as the bathroom - _teleporter_, Gavin mentally corrected - moved. There was a little radio attached to the wall and Gavin couldn't help but smirk when it was the same George Michael song that was on in Geoff's office.

After about a minute, the buzzing of the floor stopped and Ryan opened the door of the small bathroom, stepping out into the shop.

"A VCR repair shop, really? _That's_ the big disguise you lot use to make sure no one finds out about this?" Gavin could almost laugh, it was ridiculous! Of all the places, Gavin honestly kind of expected a bit of a fancier cover up. Maybe a teleporting telephone box or something, but perhaps he'd just watched a few too many sci-fi TV shows.

"Hey, don't diss the cover-up. When was the last time you needed your VCR repaired anyway?" Ryan asked, not even waiting for Gavin to follow as he walked out of the shop into the street. "Exactly, that's what I thought," he said with a smug grin when Gavin couldn't come up with a witty reply.

"Wait, aren't people gonna recognise me?" Gavin queried after a few moments of thought, bringing up what he thought to be a valuable point. He'd died barely hours ago, although he didn't know how Earth time worked in comparison to dead-time so perhaps they'd travelled into the future where no one even remembered him.

"We don't look like ourselves to humans, we've got a disguise," Ryan explained as he walked along the street, obviously knowing where he was going so Gavin' didn't even hesitate before following him. "Think of it as a witness protection programme for dead people."

"So I can't uh…"

"No, you can't contact anyone you knew when you were alive." Ryan informed, a solemn tone to his voice. "I tried that when I first came back. Didn't really go down to well." So that meant no sourcing out Dan and his brother to ensure they weren't too heartbroken over his death.

"What do I look like then?"

"Shit, almost forgot this…" Ryan cursed under his breath as he grabbed two packets of IDs out of his pocket, handing one to Gavin and keeping the other to himself. "Here, these are basically our fake IDs for whatever we want. FBI, Homeland Security, Health Inspector, maid, you name it, we got it."

Gavin wrinkled his nose when he saw that his disguise was a tall, dark haired, tired-looking, sallow faced middle-aged man. Ah well, he could've gotten worse. At least he wasn't too eye-turning or noticeable. And a glance over at Ryan's ID showed Gavin that he appeared to the human eye as a slightly shorter but significantly more attractive young man, he almost looked like he'd just graduated university. Lucky bastard. Although Ryan, in Gavin's opinion, looked far more attractive as himself than the fake person on his IDs.

Before Gavin had noticed what was going on, Ryan was unlocking a car and waiting for Gavin to get in the passenger side as he started the ignition. Gavin paid little attention to where Ryan was driving, but snapped himself out of his daydream once Ryan stopped the car after a couple of minutes and got out.

"Don't do anything stupid. Geoff says everyone's supposed to see theirs but I think it's dumb. If you wanna leave then we can forget this ever happened and just get on with the case." Ryan informed, gesturing with a hand over to a field with numerous headstones and bunches of flowers and there was even a small group of people surrounding one of the headstones and _shit_.

It was his fucking _funeral_.

He took a few tentative and wary steps closer, although he was already close enough to see the faces of the people surrounding his grave. Gavin recognised that only six of his fellow police officers had turned up, although one of them was his direct superior so it was probably mandatory for him to attend. Then there were his parents, his father looking unsurprisingly emotionless as he watched Gavin's mother read out a small speech which Gavin couldn't hear from where he stood a few rows of graves away, next to the road.

A bunch of Gavin's close friends had shown but his eyes were drawn to Dan who was looking extremely teary and devastated as he hung his head, his hand being held in that familial way Gavin's brother always had done when anyone was upset. That was probably what did it for him, seeing the two people who mattered most to Gavin's life absolutely distraught as they stood there, all clad in black and mourning his death.

"I-I'm sorry, I can't…" Gavin stuttered, stumbling slightly as he took a few steps backwards. The entire weight of the situation was crashing down on him, leaving his mind a whirl of thoughts as he struggled to even choke out a couple of words. He wasn't sure what possessed him to do so, but he turned and ran straight into Ryan's arms, holding onto him as if he was the only thing there to anchor Gavin.

Ryan was warm, which was odd because apparently they no longer had need for usual bodily functions like a beating heart, or food, or sleep. But he was warm, and comforting, and smelt really nice which was also odd but Gavin didn't care. It just felt so nice to be held by Ryan's strong arms, face pressed against his broad chest as he shook and sobbed.

"Shh, it's alright. It's okay. Geoff's an asshole for making this compulsory." Ryan mumbled soothing words as he rubbed comforting circles on Gavin's back, the Brit eternally grateful that Geoff had decided to partner him with Ryan. The man was so selfless and had already proved he cared for Gavin when he informed him at the beginning that he didn't have to watch this if he didn't want to even if it did mean disobeying Geoff's direct orders. Never had anyone gone against someone's wishes for Gavin before, it was a new and strange prospect and he found himself liking it.

"Can we leave?" Gavin asked, voice timid and vulnerable as he looked up with watery eyes at Ryan.

"Of course." Ryan agreed, getting back in his car and starting up the engine once again, not having to wait for Gavin to get in this time before he drove away from the cemetery.

Gavin wiped furiously at his eyes, still pissed off at himself for getting so emotional at that. But seriously, how dumb was it it cry at your own bloody funeral?! "Damn, I'm a mess," he grumbled, running his hands over his face and through his hair in an attempt to compose himself (or at least make himself vaguely presentable).

"You're definitely faring better than others," Ryan commented, "I know one guy who ran through the funeral procession to his wife and tried to insist it was him. He ended up getting a smack round the head and would've wound up arrested had his R.I.P.D. partner not shown up and taken him away."

"I may have thought about it," Gavin confessed sheepishly and wiping away the last of his tears, "but Dan's in the army, he would've bloody broken my nose if some random guy interrupted my funeral."

"Oh, you should also know that you're far more durable than a human. For example, jump out a ten story building and you'll be fine." Ryan informed with a casual shrug.

"That's actually pretty cool," Gavin muttered in awe. Being deceased was shaping up to be much better than he originally thought; and he'd even met someone like he'd never met before, Ryan actually _cared about him_, unlike everyone Gavin had met in his life (well, excluding Dan and George of course). "Is there anything else we can do?"

Ryan spent the remainder of the car drive to their destination explaining to Gavin the pros of being a dead man in the real world. As it turned out, there was a lot of them. Gavin's favourite one for that moment had to be the fact that he wouldn't age a day which was suddenly made the fact that he died at the young age of 26 much better than it had been earlier.

They'd actually managed to make light conversation as they got out of the car and walked over to the motel Ryan had pointed out, claiming a renegade ghost had escaped and taken residence there.

As it turned out, these Deadoes could take a normal human form as long as they didn't come into contact with cumin powder (weird choice of kryptonite, but Gavin wasn't complaining when he discovered he could literally just throw some dust over a Deado to see beyond the disguise) and they 'pop', unable to do anything but turn into their true form.

The one Gavin and Ryan had tracked and subsequently needed to shoot (it was either that or let it burst into a shopping mall full of people across the road) had been huge and had a sickly green colour with pussy yellow boils all over its body. It was gross to say the least, and Gavin had gagged for a good few minutes after Ryan had seen that he was on the verge of turning green himself, and shot the monster in the back to pop it, causing it to dematerialise into nothing.

"You okay there?" Ryan had asked with a concerned expression from a safe distance of a few feet from Gavin, who was on his hands and knees, breathing heavily and trying to calm down.

"Y-yeah… Shitty gag reflex, y'know?" He tried to brush his almost uncontrollable shaking off as him still feeling sick, but he glanced up to see Ryan raise one eyebrow in a disbelieving manner, so he gave up all ideas of lying right then and there. Slowly, he dragged himself back to his feet and brushed off the palms of his hands, heading back towards Ryan's car.

It still took him a few more seconds of silence before he felt ready to speak.

"Just… today was a lot." He confessed, mind casting itself back over the traumas he'd experienced in less than twelve hours; getting shot, dying, discovering that there actually is an afterlife, getting enlisted in the R.I.P.D., going to his own goddamn funeral, the whole day had been a shock to Gavin.

Ryan simply nodded in agreement, a knowing smile on his handsome features currently being illuminated by the streetlights as they headed for the car. It was obvious that he could easily see that Gavin needed some thinking time, and he allowed it without a single word of protest or question while he drove them back to the VCR shop.

It wasn't even as if Gavin was thinking about much, he was just finally drinking in the entire situation and learning to accept it instead of fighting against it. And when they finally arrived back in the main office after the short trip in the weird bathroom, Gavin felt much more relaxed and accepting than before where he was a mess of shock, confusion, and fright.

After being led back across the room to the desk that belonged to Michael and Ray, Gavin smiled back at Geoff when he greeted him. The three of them plus Jack were all sat and stood around Michael and Ray's desk, chatting casually, but they were immediately welcomed with a "so how was your first day?" from Ray and Geoff both at the same time.

"It was pretty good, still kind of getting used to it all I guess." Gavin replied noncommitally, knowing that in order to stay in their good books he needed to not say about how he was still wary about a lot of things.

"Geoff, you really should take out that rule of making people see their own funeral." Gavin was grateful he had Ryan to voice his worries. Not that he was actually going to tell Geoff he kind of wanted to slap him for making that mandatory, but it still bothered him.

"Ryan, you should know by now that it's necessary." Geoff replied with an exasperated tone of voice, so Gavin was probably correct in assuming that this wasn't the first time Ryan had brought up this subject.

"Yeah, but _why?!_ It's fucking _torture_ for some people!" Ryan exclaimed irately, furrowing his brow and tensing his shoulders ever so slightly as he faced Geoff.

"Yeah, you really should take out that rule." Jack added helpfully and with an honest expression. "I remember storming across the funeral to get to my wife and explain that I was okay, I got punched and nearly got arrested for that. I was just really goddamn lucky Joel was there to save my ass or I probably _would_ have gotten arrested."

Why did that story sound familiar to Gavin…? Oh! "Wait, that was you?" Gavin asked, turning to Jack as he mentally recalled the similar story Ryan had told him earlier that day.

Jack chuckled, an amused smile on his face when he looked up at Ryan from where he was sat in an office chair he'd wheeled over from another desk. "You told him about that, huh?"

"That story never gets old." Ryan mused aloud, smirking fondly at the mere mention of the incident.

Jack shook his head in an entertained disbelief, but Geoff laughed, probably a little too loudly because it caught Michael's attention, the young man's head whipping up to stare at Geoff.

"Haven't you got a _job_ to be doing, Geoffrey?" He asked, acid in his tone that would have made Gavin uncomfortable if it had been aimed at him. Geoff, however, only grinned in smug affection at him.

"I, my dear Michael, am on what I like to call a well-deserved _break_." Geoff replied, voice dripping with sarcasm as he crossed one leg over the other and locked his fingers behind his head so he could lean back casually in his chair.

Michael scowled at him, sending daggers with his icy glare while Ray sniggered.

"Hey, at least _I_ didn't die from the fuckin' backfire of a faulty shotgun." Geoff snapped, a sneer on his face that wasn't even half-serious as he glanced over at Ray who sat on top of the desk.

Ray huffed in annoyance, and Gavin couldn't help but simultaneously smirk at the dumb way to die whilst still feeling sorry for Ray for dying in such a way.

"Yeah, well at least _I_ didn't die after getting shot in a boring war like you did, Geoff." Ray retorted, though Gavin could tell that he was probably used to getting mocked jokingly for the way he kicked the bucket.

But the casual and natural silence that fell over them left Gavin intrigued; he kind of wanted to know a little bit more about how the others died, especially Ryan. Gavin didn't know why, but he was exceptionally curious about Ryan in general. He was something Gavin had never seen before, but he already knew he liked it.

"So uh…" Gavin started awkwardly, unsure of how to phrase what he wanted to say next. "How did the rest of you, y'know…"

"Bite the dust?" Jack asked, successfully finishing off Gavin's sentence. Well, he would have phrased it in a more careful way and he wouldn't have said it so casually.

"Yeah," Gavin nodded and stayed silent, listening intrigued and captivated by everyone's stories.

"I died in a huge riot that took the streets of central Austin by storm. It happened like, fifteen years ago but I don't think it was a bad death, I'm pretty pleased with it… unlike Ray." Jack finished his story with a smirk at Ray who frowned in a displeased manner and stuck his tongue out childishly at Jack.

Michael talking nearly made Gavin jump, he was too distracted by the face Ray was pulling at Jack, but he still managed to pay attention. "I was shot like five times in the fuckin' chest in a gunfight with a shitty gang that used to give my PD absolute _hell_." His voice was calm and stoic but seemed friendly, Gavin would just have to spend a little more time around him, he was bound to win the redhead over and perhaps then Gavin could actually have a group of people he actually called friends. "What about you, Gavin?"

"Uhh… Bullet to the neck in a bank robbery. Kinda sucky but at least it was quick I guess." Gavin explained, finding it a bit easier to talk about it now he'd come to terms with his own death. What he didn't notice, however, was the way Ryan almost seemed to immediately fall into a deep thought the second Gavin mentioned the bank robbery.

He turned to Ryan with a curious expression, hugely interested in what the older man's story was because out of everyone Gavin had met since his untimely demise, Ryan was the most interesting. Gavin found himself wanting to know everything about the man, he could talk for _hours_ and Gavin would still be ensnared in the stories he had to tll, but he inwardly cursed when two other officers sauntered over to them and interrupted the conversation.

"Hey Adam! Joel didn't try and jump off a thirty story building just for funsies again, did he?" Ray asked, looking at the bearded man with a septum piercing who wore a rather disgruntled and exasperated expression on his face. But before Gavin looked at Adam, he had kept his gaze on Ryan just long enough to catch him sigh with relief upon being prevented from spilling the story of his death.

"No, he nearly fucking blew up a gas station though. Didn't you, Joel?" Adam snarked, giving the tall man with messy dark hair a patronising look.

"Adam, I fuckin' told you, it was a fuckin' accident, okay?" Joel insisted, pointedly ignoring the 'I'm so glad I took the job at the evidence lockers instead of staying as your partner' that came from Jack, before cleverly changing the topic with a grin. "Anyway, we saw Matt on the way in and he said that there's another easy job in downtown Austin. We were gonna fuckin' get it but he said to leave it to a rookie." Joel said, cleverly changing the topic with a grin.

"Well boys," Geoff interrupted, spinning around in his chair to face Ryan and Gavin who were still standing (and Gavin was glad he was dead because if he was alive, his legs would be killing him after standing up and walking and doing so much effort in one day). "Looks like you've got your next job. And try not to fuckin' kill it this time; use a teleportation bullet to send it straight to a cell instead of a disintegration bullet."

"Yes boss, we'll try our very best." Ryan said sassily, nodding patronisingly and beginning to lead the way back over to the weird teleporter, so Gavin followed barely a couple of footsteps behind him.

This time round, Gavin was prepared; he wasn't going to gag or look away in disgust, he was _determined_ to show that he was going to succeed at this.

And when he was confronted with the monstrous beast of a Deado he had to contain, he shot it in the centre of its chest from a couple of meters away (he still wasn't brave enough to go anywhere near one yet) after Ryan had thrown a handful of cumin powder over it, causing it to transform into its true form.

When the thing disappeared in a flash of blue light, Gavin slotted his gun back into his holster and his heart felt like it was doing backflips (even though it stopped beating quite a while ago) when he turned around to see Ryan grinning proudly at him.

"You're learning quickly," he commented, and Gavin noticed that his entire face lit up when he smiled, and he found himself wanting to be the cause of that beautiful smile a lot more often.

Gavin smiled and replied with a quick, "thanks, I am learning from the best, of course," which caused Ryan to actually blush a little bit, and the mood-brightening smile stayed on his face as they started to walk back to the VCR shop having walked the way to the Deado in the first place. It had been a short walk, barely twenty minutes, and Ryan claimed that walking back in the dark was always a nice perk of being in the R.I.P.D. purely because he knew that if he came across trouble, he wouldn't actually get himself hurt or arrested.

But it was barely five minutes later that Ryan was looking at Gavin with a concerned expression, but Gavin continued to pretend not to notice for another minute or so until Ryan breached the silence.

"Forgive me if this sounds intrusive, but are you coping with this? Emotionally, I mean." Ryan queried, smooth and rich voice carrying the weight of concern he was obviously feeling. And when Gavin stayed silent, Ryan added a soft "is there anything I could do to help?"

"I'm just… I dunno, I feel like I want to know everything but nothing all at once and it just bugs me that I'm such a rookie I guess." Gavin confessed, lifting his head up to look at Ryan from where he'd been staring at his shoes in order to avoid making eye contact that would probably end up awkward.

"That's not unnatural; even I felt like that when I first died…" Ryan seemed to trail off, and he looked to be torn between saying something and staying quiet. Gavin breathed a silent sigh of relief when Ryan spoke again. "I didn't have a nice death or a funny one like the others. Only Geoff knows how I died, I never actually told the others the truth, I just told them I had an incident with a bank robber and that was it."

Gavin almost wanted to smile and say 'snap', but he knew that wouldn't be appropriate for the serious conversation they were delving into.

"Ryan, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, don't do this just 'cause you're feeling sorry for me or anything dumb like that." Gavin insisted with a serious expression as he looked directly into Ryan's eyes, giving him the most honest and understanding look he could muster.

"It's okay, I kind of _want_ to tell you." Ryan admitted after a second or so of not talking again. "I trust you, Gavin."

Gavin had no idea why anyone would trust or care about him, but he wasn't about to question Ryan. Instead, he stayed silent and nodded for Ryan to go on.

"There was a bank robbery 24 years ago, much like the one you experienced, so me and six other officers were sent in to split up to find the thieves. We already had cops covering the exits so we knew the robbers were still in the building." Ryan continued to walk as he talked, voice rather calm and collected for someone describing the events leading up to their death. "Then I walked into a room where there were four guys in masks with duffel bags stuffed with money.

"Well, I _thought_ there were only four, turns out a fifth guy was near the door so I didn't see him until he jumped me; I fought back and ended up snagging off his mask… They said they weren't gonna hurt me to begin with, but they needed to kill me simply because I saw one of their faces… So they fucking shot me in the gut and left me there to bleed out before any of the other officers could even notice I was down."

Ryan breathed a heavy sigh once he finished relaying the story, and if Gavin looked closely he could even see Ryan's shoulders losing their tension as he relaxed after getting it off his chest.

"Bloody hell, Ryan, that's horrible." Gavin muttered in shocked awe at the story of Ryan's death. "I wouldn't even wish that on my worst enemy. Must'a hurt like a bitch."

"Yeah, it fuckin' clogs up your lungs and you end up choking out blood for a good thirty minutes until you finally keel over." Ryan relayed the gruesome details with the faintest trace of a smirk on his face, and for that, Gavin even found himself smiling a little bit too.

"It's alright though, I did all I could do for the Austin PD, I was practically the permanent employee of the month, I was bound to get got by a criminal someday." Ryan admitted with a tone that Gavin admired; it was one that almost made him sound like he was reviewing a dull game of chess and a bad move rather than his life. Either way, it didn't sound like he was enjoying talking about this, so Gavin attempted to remedy that.

"Hey, at least you're proud of the things you did while you were alive." Gavin cursed himself when that came out less congratulatory and more self-depreciating than he had originally aimed for.

Ryan turned to him with a curious expression. "What do you mean?"

"I just feel really shit right now." He confessed, kicking an empty can and almost grimacing at how much of a moody teenager he was acting like right then. "I was a piss poor cop, alright? I effed up all the bloody time and they only let me in the force because the other guy who wanted to join had like a mile-long medical history while mine was pretty much clean. Then I got myself shot in the bloody neck when I was supposed to be helping stop a robbery."

Ryan stayed silent as he allowed Gavin to rant, leaning against the wall of his VCR shop (when they arrived, Gavin couldn't remember for he was too distracted) under the dim light from the sign while Gavin paced back and forth frustratedly.

"And I didn't even wanna be a cop really, it was my dad who pressured me into doing it. I wanted to take a college course in film studies and go to Uni to specialise in slow-motion photography but I signed up for the police force like dad wanted, and look where that got me." He scoffed humourlessly at the situation and made a wide gesture with his arms. "So instead of trying to be a good police officer, I just got reckless. I didn't really care what I did, I just wanted to get kicked out, but I got myself shot in the bloody neck instead.

"All I really remember from that was how much that effing _hurt_. The next thing I knew everything froze, I was being sucked into the sky, and then I was in that little room with Geoff who was busy telling me I was dead." Gavin finished his rant by pulling back his arm and swinging his closed fist into a lamppost with all the strength he could muster. He cursed when it hurt, but smirked when he saw that his hand sustained no injury whilst a decent fist-sized dent had been made in the metal of the post.

But before he could do anything more to the lamppost, Ryan had taken Gavin's hand in own and was holding it tightly. "Things do get better, Gavin. It takes a while to get over it, and I'm not gonna blame you for that - it took me a long few months before I actually sat down and had a conversation about it with Geoff - but I _promise_ that they'll get better. I'll make sure of it. Being dead sucks, but being in the R.I.P.D. _definitely_ makes it like, five hundred times more entertaining. You even end up having some fun with it."

Gavin took a deep breath to steady himself, but made no move to pull away from Ryan.

"I just feel like shit because I didn't really live my life, I guess. I never even had a proper relationship," he confessed, muttering it under his breath as though he was ashamed of it. "My dad-"

"You know, I'm beginning to like your father less and less as you tell me more about him." Ryan commented, a displeased frown on his face.

"You wouldn't be the only one." Gavin agreed with a solemn expression.

"Maybe we'll go toilet paper his house or slash his tires someday." Ryan suggested with a mischievous smirk which had Gavin calming down ever so slightly before he continued.

"Anyway, my dad was always jabbering on about me finding a nice girlfriend and settling down with her and getting married and making them proud grandparents…" He paused for a few seconds, shooting a small worried glance at Ryan, waiting for him to pull away disgusted when he finished with "but I'm… I'm gay and it's _unbelievably_ hard trying to have a boyfriend behind your parents back, so I just… didn't."

And _that_ was the moment where Ryan could've sworn he felt his heart break for Gavin, disregarding the fact that it hadn't beat in over twenty years. He had known this man for just about a day and if his opinion was anything to go by, they'd already formed a strong bond together.

"Gavin, listen to me." Ryan said, tilting Gavin's chin up with one hand and maintaining solid eye-contact with him to ensure he paid attention. He even stepped a little bit closer, bringing their faces inches away from each other. "None of that's important any more. Not your asshole of a dad, not the restrictions of society, not the prejudices, discriminations, rules, insults, none of it. You can literally do whatever the fuck you want. Wanna jump off a twenty-storey building for the hell of it? I'm not one to judge, no one is. In fact, I'd probably even join you, and so would Joel - but he is admittedly a little bit crazy.

"Whatever shitty things that happened in your past life no longer matters. Excuse me if I sound like one of those motivational cat posters, but I mean it when I say that all that should matter to you is what's happening _right now_." Ryan finished, noticing exactly how Gavin's eyes widened in surprise at Ryan's boldness, and how he'd leaned forward ever so slightly, their warm breath mingling in the cool air of the Austin night.

So he guessed he couldn't really help himself when he dropped Gavin's hand, instead moving slowly as he took Gavin's face in his hands, allowing him every option out. But Gavin was the one to, albeit nervously, place his hands on Ryan's shoulders and pull him closer so he could touch their lips together in a welcoming and warm kiss. It started with just a brush of contact that was barely even there, but Ryan was the one to smile and lean in closer, pressing his lips firmly and affectionately against Gavin's.

After a few moments of soaking in each other's presence and memorising exactly how their lips fit perfectly together, Ryan finally broke the kiss and Gavin couldn't help but smile giddily at Ryan, who grinned back in an almost equally as dizzily as he chuckled lightly.

"Like I said, do whatever you want." He smirked, absently biting his lower lip before almost being startled when Gavin wrapped his arms around Ryan's middle, smothering his face in his shoulder.

"Thanks Ry," Gavin said with a wide smile, stepping back from the embrace and walking through the door into the VCR shop, infinitely happier than he had been before.

Before, he had admittedly been a mopey little minge about being deceased at such a young age and after not taking any of the chances that had flown by him in his life. His life had been carefully constructed to please his father, to please his mother, to please literally anyone who claimed to have a say in the matter. He'd never done anything for himself and he'd hardly had any true friends (Dan being an exception and George didn't exactly count because he was his brother, they were pretty much forced to get along, it was just handy that they were both disgruntled at the attitudes of their parents).

But then along came Ryan with his suave confidence and his genuine caring attitude and his insane attractiveness and his amusing humour and Gavin may have fallen a little bit for him.

Okay, maybe he'd fallen for Ryan a lot.

Even though he'd found Ryan _after_ he died, at least he'd found him at all. Gavin was simply glad that he found someone who actually _gave a shit_ and didn't expect anything back from it. Ryan liked Gavin for who he was, not for who he pretended to be, or was forced to be, or who he was in his life.

This was Gavin's chance to start all over again with new friends and new people and a new job. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't absolutely _buzzing_ about it as he practically skipped into the teleporter, fiddling expertly with the radio on the wall and admiring the deep rumble of Ryan's soft laughter when Gavin found a mainstream pop station, immediately singing along to the familiar tune.

Gavin recalled being told years ago that _"life was for the living so live it, or you're better off dead."_ He'd never really lived life while he had it, and after barely 24 hours of being dead, Gavin was fully prepared to call this the best day of his existence. And it was all because of the handsome R.I.P.D. officer stood next to Gavin, bumping their shoulders together comfortably in the teleporter.

So yes, he was absolutely ready to start again and have the time of his afterlife because if he had Ryan at his side, he knew he would be absolutely fine. It would be the two of them fighting together, side-by-side against undead creatures, no shitty parents to tell him what to do, just someone who cared and understood.


End file.
